In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, from a young age, Stephen realizes he is different than the other children and has a higher lever of thinking than his peers. Through this advance in his maturity, he has created his own identity without having to rely on other children. Although Stephen realizes he is different from other children, he does not mind being alone and having thoughts different from everyone else. When he begins to realize his is alone in the world, he turns to the church to attempt to reinforce the identity he has already created for himself, however in the end, this lifestyle is not correct for him and does not aid him in being an individual. At the end of his youth, and the end of the story, he realizes he needs to take charge in creating his own life in becoming an artist. Without the crutch of other people and organizations, he becomes an artist and realizes who he truly is.

In Playboy of the Western World, Christy struggles to create his own identity because the identity he creates for himself is based on lies, though he believes they are true. Christy appears to create an identity that he believes the women, particularly Pegeen, will approve of and be impressed by. Though his father has said he is afraid of women, when Christy meets Pegeen he knows exactly how to impress her and makes her believe he is someone who he really is not. Christy obviously shapes his identity based off of what will impress other people, to ensure he will be welcome into their society, rather than staying true to himself and his old way of life.

In King Lear this identity crisis affects Lear's daughters because Regan and Goneril conform with each other to plot against their father while Cordelia acts as an individual and expresses the true love for her father. Similarly to other aspects of life, when one is an individual, they are outcast in society while those who have the same thoughts bond and unite. In the play, the daughters that unite are given power although their motives are not about pleasing their father, rather taking all of his power and eventually breaking his heart. In the end, Cordelia is appreciated by her father when he finally realizes she is the only one that loved him and he is heartbroken to learn he has been wrong in disowning her.

Liz's Big Question

Throughout our lives as young students, we are told to be individuals and create our own identities. However, we seem to do this by conforming and creating cliques and ultimately blending together with our friends, classes, high school and entire teen scene all together. Yet when senior year rolls around and the time for college applications in upon us, we actually need to differ ourselves from our peers and do what we can to stand out. We end up looking to the world and ask the big question, "How do we form and shape our identities?"

In literature, from the oldest to the most modern, the identity crisis arises. Oedipus struggles to discover who he truly is after learning he has unfortunately killed his father and slept with his mother while attempting to avoid such fate and realizes his whole life he has been someone else, rather than who he truly is.

Recently I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith and noticed the characters in this comedy/action/romance attempt to fool their spouse with a false identity, although by the end of the story the couple seems to know the truth about their spouse even more than before. By attempting to hide their identities they end up learning who they really are. In some cases, we form our identities with the help of our closest friends.